Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Our EPA House

In the spring of 2009, we bought a little house in East Palo Alto. I never blogged about it, but I want to include it in our family blog books, so here we go!

East Palo Alto is right across the 101 from Palo Alto, and although we all hope the area is gentrifying, the city's crime rates have historically been high. We bought the house in the best neighborhood of EPA (called "the Gardens"), but let's face it, it's still EPA! When we bought it, it was bank-owned and had been vandalized (which saved us quite a bit of money on the purchase price!). We spent a lot of weekends there, with eight-month-old Trenton in tow, participating in a bare-bones renovation of the house and yard. (You know, painting over graffiti inside that said "F da police"! Just a normal Saturday!) Our neighbors on both sides were wonderful the whole time we owned it.

Interestingly (annoyingly?), we found ourselves doing the exact same thing come winter of 2012/2013, thanks to a renter who bailed and left the place in poor repair. After the work and stress of spiffying it up again (most of which Ryan handled), we decided to casually look into selling. When we found out there were only nine houses on the market in the whole city, we decided to list it. After one open house, we got an offer we couldn't turn down, so this weekend, we said goodbye to our cute little house in EPA!

Although it was often a lot of work, it was a valuable learning experience for us, and we're grateful to have had the opportunity. We'll miss you, "Dirty House" (that's what the boys called it all winter), and we hope your new owners take great care of you! It's bittersweet to say goodbye!